News archive of September 2016

Unemployment in the 28 member-states of the EU stabilised for the fourth consecutive month at a 7-year low of 8.6%, while unemployment in Bulgaria hit its lowest level since October 2009, reaching 7.7%, showed Eurostat data.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is in no way implicated in the court file under which Romania's former Prime Minister Victor Ponta is being investigated, but Blair's name has been mentioned publicly by co-defendant Sebastian Ghita, chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi said Friday.

Turkish authorities have laid off 1,500 prison employees and supervisors, reported Reuters, citing Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag.

According to him, the people laid off are under investigation for links to Fethullah Gulen. Ankara claims that the cleric living in the USA is behind the coup attempt on July 15.

Serbian Customs officers have prevented an attempt to smuggle 500 kilograms of "various cakes and cookies" into the country across the eastern border.

A statement termed the smuggling attempt as "unusual" and specified that it took place at the Gradina border crossing with Bulgaria.

A recusation demand submitted by arrested Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab's lawyers against his case's judge has been rejected for "lacking merit," despite the defense's attempts to validate the demand by quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey's foreign trade gap declined 17.3 percent in the first eight months of the year to $37.5 billion compared to the same period of 2015, mainly thanks to the ongoing oil slump. 
The country's trade deficit regressed to $4.69 billion in August, a 5.3 percent decline compared to the same month of 2015, preliminary data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Sept. 30. 

The European Commission (EC) has announced that it "welcomes the efforts of Greece and Albania to clarify all open issues."

At the same time, the EC stressed it would not declare itself on "whether there is a dispute over a part of the territory of Greece along the border with Albania," the Beta agency has reported.

Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis has been officially declared the final winner of a fourth broadcasting license as the runner-up in the recent tender for the auctioning of four nationwide TV licenses, following the withdrawal of businessman Ioannis Kalogritsas. The relevant committee has completed an audit on Savvidis’ wealth declaration and the businessman in now expected to submit the

In Japan, where women do five times as much housework as men, three male politicians have donned "pregnancy" vests in a campaign urging men to help out more at home. 

Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry condemned the passage of a U.S. law that would allow families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to sue the kingdom for damages, calling it a matter of "great concern" in a statement on Sept. 29.